Members of the Sundre Fire Department are going to be better prepared for future flooding now that the provincial government has granted their request to provide funding for a riverboat.
Marty Butts, the Town of Sundre's fire chief, has been pushing for a riverboat for at least three years. He believes it is one of the last tools to the department's collection needed for successful river rescues.
“Since I've become the chief there's been a few projects on my agenda that I wanted to see happen and that was one of my things, is getting a riverboat, because of all the need we see in our community with the major river coming through our community. And all the high activities like the canoeing, the boating, the rafting, all the kids that play on and around rivers,” said Butts.
“We need a jet boat to access some of these places. Before, we'd have to call somebody in that had a jet boat personally.”
This included some of the members of the fire department, but there is a liability risk involved, he said.
The riverboat will cost at least $40,000, he added.
“I've been trying for three or four years now and now the government has stepped up,” he said.
“It's finally going to happen. It's one more piece of the puzzle. I like to see us very well prepared because we have so much flooding and issues in the area.
“We're training all our guys up with swift water rescue and ice rescue and we have a Zodiak and an RDC boat but they're deflatable boats with no motor on them…This is kind of one of the last items that we're needing.”
Town of Sundre officials are receiving $96,175 through a provincial flood readiness grant program.
Town officials applied for the funding immediately after the flood in June, according to Dave Dubauskas, the town's chief administrative officer. They asked for additional items in February and were approved in March.
Included in the funding is a sandbagging machine, as well as some items that needed replenishing after last year's flood, like rescue ropes, life-jackets and dry suits.
“From last year's flood we lost a bunch of ropes and carabiners and stuff from doing river rescues,” said Butts.
“We're getting some of them replaced because we had some issues where we were rescuing people and it was just too dangerous to get some of the equipment back. So we had to abandon it.”
He said Dubauskas was extremely helpful with pushing the government for funding for the boat.
But it is unlikely that the fire department will receive the boat before this flood season, he said.
“We just can't go buy a boat off a lot. It's a unique boat because it's a jet boat, so it doesn't have a prop on the back. It has got to be reinforced on the bottom for the abuse that they take on the low shallow rivers that we will be using it on,” he explained.
“And it has to have radios and lights and all that stuff in a rescue, compartments for all our gear and stuff.
“We're hoping to have it for this flood season but the lineup for getting something built like that custom is probably going to be closer to the end of the summer when we receive it, or the fall, and that's even pushing it. We might not get it until next year.”
